Posts Tagged ‘Appendages’

Competitive gamers are always looking for a way to sharpen their edge, but few solutions provide leverage like the N-Control Avenger, a controller attachment known for rigging gamepads with actual levers. This quirky clamshell impressed us last year with its customizable trigger pulleys and finger flickable appendages — allowing us to command the controller’s face buttons without taking our thumbs off of its analog sticks. Today the outfit silently unveiled the Avenger Elite, a familiar looking successor that promises to offer more of the same, albeit better.

Company founder David Kotkin explained that the new unit features higher quality materials, a more sensitive hair-trigger system and a new “spring against spring” button depression to give its button levers some extra oomph. The new unit’s arms are also stronger, says Kotkin, and shouldn’t have to be adjusted between sessions. The Elite sells for the same steep $50 as the original unit, although N-Control is offering a discount on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier when bundled with the plastic peripheral, $75 nets you both. Kotkin was kind enough to send us a few shots of the unit ahead of its May 5th launch date, check them out in the gallery below, or click past the break for the official press release.

We’ve seen all manner of medical robots ’round these parts, from bloodbots to surgical cyborgs. And now Dr. Thomas M. Hemmerling from McGill University Health Centre (who also helped develop the McSleepy anesthetic android) has created the world’s first intubation robot. Called the Kepler Intubation System (KIS), it’s a robotic arm with a video laryngoscope that’s controlled via joystick — allowing MDs to get their Dr. Mario on while sliding an endotracheal tube into any passed-out meatbag with minimal fuss and maximum safety. The first procedure using the device on a real, live human was a success, and clinical testing continues. We’re not big on bots shoving anything anywhere (even if it does help us breathe while under the knife), but that’s better than android appendages lobbing grenades our way.

ARM processors are so hot right now, especially in the mobile space, where they power many of the greatest smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices coming down the turnpike. Microsoft is apparently looking to merge in on that action, becoming an official ARM licensee. It’s unclear exactly what MS will be doing with its new found technical rights, but General Manager KD Hallman said “With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.” This likely means Microsoft will be better optimizing Windows Embedded and Windows Phone for the processor architecture, but also opens the door for Ballmer & Co. to create their own magical microprocessor and, ultimately, use it to rule the world with an iron fist. Terms of the agreement were not given, but hopefully nobody in Redmond had to lose any appendages to seal the deal.

You’ll know this device as the 4.8-inch revolutionary intent on making us fall madly in love with MIDs all over again (or should that be for the first time?). Good thing then that we now know it as the device that bears a thousand Engadget fingerprints. The Moorestown-powered GW990 from LG has finally become official and we have to say it is exactly the huge slab you might imagine it to be. In terms of specs, it comes with 16GB of built in flash memory and 512MB RAM, and 720p output is possible if the 1020 x 480 screen resolution isn’t enough for you. Chunky, sturdy and curved in all the right places, it’s an appealing device even if it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Powered by Moblin and primarily marketed as a 3G device, we were told by LG that — behind the 1,850mAh battery and alongside the MicroSD expansion slot — your SIM can make a home, and some such AT&T appendages have already been spotted inside this… smartphone? The UI at present is just a standard S-class layered on top of Moblin, giving us no cause for excitement, but we were reassured that LG will be offering many other OS options when the device shows up in the second half of this year. Anyhow, enough blabbering from us, check out the gallery below and don’t forget the vid after the break.